title: Induction of light chain expression in a pre-B cell line by fusion to myeloma cells.
abstract: Pre-B cells, the first cells in the B-lymphocyte differentiation pathway which express immunoglobulin, have recently been shown to express cytoplasmic mu heavy chain (H) but not light chain (L). If, as is believed, pre-B cells are the precursors of immature B lymphocytes, which express surface IgM, the differentiation of pre-B cells to immature B lymphocytes must be accompanied by the expression of light chains. In this case, it should be possible for the progeny of a single pre-B cell to express a variety of light chains in association with the same heavy chain. We have tested this hypothesis by hybridizing a pre-B cell line 18-81 expressing only cytoplasmic mu chains with variant myeloma cells which do not express light chains. Hybridization of B-lymphoma cells with myeloma cells usually produces a hybrid with the phenotype of the more differentiated parent. In this case, the fusion resulted in the induction of light chain expression from the 18-81 genes and we have been able to demonstrate that independent hybrids express different light chains, in accordance with the hypothesis that a pre-B cell committed to expression of a single mu heavy chain can generate progeny expressing different slight chains.
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000916:Antibody Diversity; D001402:B-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology*; D002460:Cell Line; D002999:Clone Cells / Q000276:immunology; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D006822:Hybrid Cells / Q000276:immunology*; D007147:Immunoglobulin Light Chains / Q000235:genetics*; D007526:Isoelectric Point; D051379:Mice; D009194:Myeloma Proteins / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D007147:Immunoglobulin Light Chains; D009194:Myeloma Proteins